Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-02-13
A Series OF 1T ers it0m Marion Hhr.
land 10 Tnese WHO Are the Moth.
ers uf hmm 1rtal Beings.
90 Why Women Should Not BIS Mothers
sEhe Life of the Popular Society Girl"
Our Uniq ne of Motherhood
rCopyrighted, Iss7, by the Author.


the correspondence proposes to compile
the epistles in a volume entitled, Reasons
why Women Should Not Vote she
SAYS, "when the replies are all in" The
clause suggested to me the caption | have
set at the head of this paper.
Our boys are in another score OF years
to make the laws, heal the souls and
bodies, formulate the science and control
the commerce OF their generation.
Fathers who, recognizing this great
truta, do not prepare their sons to do
their part toward accomplishing this
work. are despiSed, and justly, by the
community in which they live. our
Girls are in another score CT years to
make the homes which are 10 model and
control the men who are to make laws,
heal souls and bodies. formulate science
and control the commerce Of their geuer-
alton. In these homes are to be born
and brought up by the mothers, our grand
sons, Who are to make laws, etc, etc. in
Their geCeratiOn. The house that-Jack-
bull row of bricks runs on in immu:abIe
lines into the vista of the eternities.
Yet-and herein is mystery-the moth
er who does not, with definite purpose, in
the fear of God and love of her kind, pre-
pare her daughter to fulfill this mission,
loses neither caste nor favor among her
congeners. Our Protestant sympathies
are shed wastefully upon the novice,
who, BY the rules of certain conventual
orders must mingle in the gayest society
to which she has access, that she msy
test the strength of her resolution by
temptation. The lives of our girls, as We
help make them, are, for the interim that
separates the sChoOl-roOm from the brl-
dal altar, such novitiate, rather than an
apprenticeship for the noblest work ever
entrusted to human hands. The black
veil typities the mar iage ring. 10 her
farewell tD the merry go-tOund of parties,
balls and frolics generally, our daughter
blows the foam from the. cup; sparkles,
subsidies into stateliness; the wine OF eX-
isterce and herself SETTLE down.
Said one affeCtiOnate, sensib mother
when reminded that practical knowledge
of the duties of mistress, wife and mother
would make the prospective matcCn's
task easier IN days 10 come: "But what
time have girls who go intO society, for
regular home occupations: What with
lunch and high tea and an evening party
six days out of seven, and german
every week. to say nothing Of theater,
opera and dinners, they are driven to the
full measure of their strength. | see the
force of Hha! you say, but where is the
leisure to come FROM"
| DO not essay to answer this query.
The life Of the popular "society girl is
as wearing to the nervous forces as that
of the "variety" actress, and she 'goeS
off" under the strain quite as fast as does
h., Nd let ba
youth who is her favorite partner abates
not whit of his daily labor on the NOR
row, most of which she spends in bed
that she may freshen up by evening.
What is her business is his recreation.
By the time they join hands for the min
net of working day living he has come to
consider this style Of re-creatiDg his spir-
its 50 bore, you know" and is glad to
try domesticity as change. In entering
upon their home life she begins TO work,
he to rest. 1t ought not, he thinks, to
tax the strength of tolerably healthy
woman to keep well appointed fiat or
cottage in order and direct the operations
OF one or two servants.
When the sweet voice takes q wiry
ring, and the plat between the brows
becomes g crease, when her VivaciouS
chit-Chat degenerltes into mOnOlogue
upon housewiiely woes, her spouse is
naturally perpleXed, perhaps impatient,
peredventure even slightly Contemptuous.
He had thought that she had more "grit,"
AID some perception of the serious side
Of life. How, in the name of precedent
and the COmmonest kind of common
sense can the poor young wife be other
wise than disheartened and chemically
fatlgued? A new set Of mental and ply
steal muscles are brought suddenly into
active use. The breaking INFO harness
that seemed in anticipation novel and
enticing sport turns out TO be compulsory
exercise. How she will support the eX-
perience depends upon her moral and
bodily STAYING power.
Before the tender feet Of the over
wrought creature are used to the shards
and pitfalls OF her road, child is laid in
her arms. As a Girl she thought and
talked freely OF probable wite-hood, even
pictured to herself the pretty pOmp OF
controlling AMI adjoining a home Of her
own. Thoughts of, and preparation for.
the one great untransfersble mission of
woman, as hers, would have been IN
maideIly. In her mental schedule, be 1t
long or brief, there is no note of the
necessity or even eXpediency of fitting
herself in health, in knowledge, in dis
Cipline of spirit and temper, for the
maternal office. She knows that children
are sent to most married people, and that
but for the supply OF new material ;he
human race would become extinct. She
has nebulous idea, too, that the train
ing of infants is generally the mothers
conc m. But there viii be time enough
to think OF such things should Provi
denCe add this burden to the rest.
So tie months wheeled by and the
young immortal who through her agency
is to become the best or the worst man
of his age lies in her awkward embrace,
his feeble life hanging upon her Ignorance
Why the All-wise Creator should send ba-
bies to those who know as much about
taking care OF them as peasant Lap
lander of the procession of the equinoxes
is a problem reserved for the clarified in
tellects of the hereafter. Now it is dis
sected theorem with half the pieces mis-
sing.
81 am the mother of an immortal be-
ing! God be merciful to me sinner"
is the entry in Margaret Fuller OsSOh's
disry when her boy was born. II was the
cry of the HUI m and the maternal in the
soul of her WI frankly confessed, 81
now know all the people worth knowing
in America, and find no intellect com
parable with my own"
Our small-minded land humber
mother may take up the lament, accord
ing to her individual Interpretation of its
meaning. Without trenching upon de-
batable ground, may one whose religion
teaches her to fill her own sphere 10 the
round outermost verge before aspiring
to higher, point the dismsyed learner
to the fact limited at awhile ago? We
will grant for courtesy's sake thet it is